Even though that’s an opportunity, that can also be a downfall, if you cannot focus.

5. What Skills are Needed to Become a Super Affiliate?

I think that the rule number one in marketing is that you have to have basic copywriting.

You have to have basic copywriting and understand how to brainstorm angles.

Number two is analysis:

You have all this data – can you look at the data and understand the story that it’s trying to tell?

If you’re making money every single day and all of a sudden your profits drop, can you analyze the data and see “Oh, is it because it’s Friday or is it because the CTR has dropped?”

You have to look at the data and understand.

You have to have good problem-solving skills.

A lot of people – when they have issues in affiliate marketing – they hope someone can give them the answer.

But the problem is:

How can someone give you the answer if they don’t know what’s going on with your campaign?

You can say like:

“Hey, I think I have a landing page problem but is it really a landing page problem?”

A lot of times you have a problem.

Let’s just say something like Facebook did something to your account.

No one knows the answer to that because 100 different things happened.

Can you sit down and do problem-solving?

Finally, I would probably say…just the ability to adapt.

Affiliate marketing is changing all the time and a lot of people are just not accustomed to a business that changes so fast because some people…maybe you’re coming from a restaurant business.

The restaurant business has been the same for the past thirty years.

But if you’re in an environment that’s constantly changing, that which was hot last month it’s not so hot this month.

Or all these competitors start coming in.

Can you start adapting?

Facebook made a big change.

Can you adapt?

6. How to Deal with Changes?

I never like to say…I never agreed with the whole “something is getting harder.”

I like to think that it’s changing.

And if people are promoting something and the market is inefficient, you’re promoting offers that don’t have Terms & Conditions or you’re promoting something that’s obviously a scam, you have to understand that it’s easy for a reason:

It’s not following the rules.

What happens over time is that now things are becoming more compliant and the industry matures.

I think that, as this industry matures, you have to start thinking:

“What are you doing that every other affiliate isn’t doing?”

You have to start to really think about what’s your competitive advantage or what’s your competitive edge.

A lot of people think that you can just go to a spy tool.

You can download a landing page, start running it and maybe you can make money.

But what’s stopping a thousand other people from doing the exact same thing?

You have to start thinking about what’s your competitive advantage.

Some of the top affiliates are building their own internal tools or maybe some of them are working with the advertiser to get more data on the handsets and start data converting.

As the industry is changing, you have to start thinking about what is your competitive advantage and you just can’t copy and paste campaigns or put in the bare effort.

Because if you’re putting in 10 hours a week of work and someone else is putting in 40 hours a week, how can you compete?

You can complain all you want that it’s changing or that it’s becoming more difficult but that’s not gonna do anything.

Just adapt.

7. Traffic Strategies

There’s a lot of things you can do.

Number one is that you have to understand why traffic is becoming more expensive.

It’s because a lot of these advertisers before – let’s say Amazon or Netflix – these big corporate companies, they didn’t really know how to advertise.

Now they understand how to advertise.

They’re becoming better advertisers.

They’re working with better agencies.

They’re buying more efficiently.

Of course prices are gonna rise.

There are more affiliates entering the space.

It’s kind of natural that traffic prices rise.

A few things that they can do?

Number one:

There’s a lot of different traffic sources out there.

Within the old traffic source, there are ways to find cheaper traffic.

You’re trying to search the pages, search iPhone users in the Audience Tool and see what else do they like.

You can find sister angles or cousin angles.

Those tools are really good.

9. Affiliate Marketing Mistakes

The same mistakes people were making 10 years ago are the same mistakes people are making now.

The number one biggest mistake I’ve seen is bright shiny object syndrome.

I’ve seen people that are making 500$ a day in Native Ads and then instead of scaling up on Native Ads they hear that E-Commerce is hot and then they jump over to E-Commerce.

It’s like:

You already make money in something.

It’s 10 times easier to scale that which you’re already making money in.

I feel that it’s very interesting because I talk to a lot of affiliates.

A lot of affiliates are jealous of E-Commerce guys, a lot of E-Commerce guys are jealous of affiliates.

A lot of Amazon guys are jealous of SEO, a lot of SEO guys are jealous of affiliates.

It feels like everyone just thinks their own business model is the worst.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

One big mistake I notice a lot of affiliates make is that they don’t understand the concept of statistical significance.

And I’m not just talking in terms of data.

But just because you launch a campaign…you know you can do everything right and it may not make money.

It’s kind of like poker.

I may have pocket aces.

Someone else may have pocket deuce.

We go all in.

That person that has pocket deuce may win.

There’s a two percent chance they’re gonna win, but they may win.

I’ve seen some people that do everything right, they lose, and then they think they had a bad strategy when it was actually the right strategy.

My point is:

I’ve seen a lot of people that do Facebook and they did everything right but then the campaign didn’t make any money.

The way Facebook works is you can launch the ads but because the initial audience that they showed it to was really bad…and then they give up on the campaign when they should have just launched it a few more times.

There’s a lot of…there can be a lot of inconsistencies in affiliate marketing.

I notice that people are maybe doing the right thing.

It doesn’t make money and they think it’s the wrong strategy when it was actually the right strategy.

It’s not like Facebook is the only traffic source that makes money but, in my opinion, there are a lot of different traffic sources out there but I do feel that the problem is that now you want the scalability because you may work on one pop traffic source.

It’s very easy to maximize it.

And now you go into a situation where you have to run 5 or 10 different traffic sources and that becomes a nightmare versus something like Facebook that’s just one account, one traffic source.

You can just really focus on making money instead of just juggling all these different traffic sources.

What happens is that we have a small margin and then when there’s more competition and prices keep rising, they have to get…how do you make more money?

Sometimes a lot of affiliates just think:

“Okay, we gotta get more aggressive.”

My advice?

Number one:

You don’t necessarily have to get more aggressive.

You can get more creative.

You can get more creative with the angles.

Number two:

Be careful with how aggressive you get because it doesn’t make sense to get aggressive.

What ends up happening is the advertiser of the affiliate network doesn’t pay you so you squeeze out an extra 5% Conversion Rate but you don’t end up getting paid the 20.000 dollars.

In essence, it would have been easier just to play a little bit safer.

I’m always telling people:

Try to get a little bit more aggressive but don’t get illegal.

And it’s always helpful just to talk with your affiliate manager and to know where the rule is.

Like I said:

You don’t want an issue where you get too aggressive, you don’t get paid, and worst of all, there’s been affiliate marketers that have been sued by people.

Sued by the FTC, or it can be that you were using a picture you shouldn’t be using when you could have just paid someone, get the model release, they’d sign the forms and stuff.

Just be very careful about the risks you take.

12. Affiliate Marketing Trends

I hate this question.

I get this question from everybody.

Part of me feels like if I reveal everything then I’ll make less money.

Two big trends, I think.

I do feel like, number one, in 2017, a big trend was to go towards E-Commerce.

And I do feel that in 2018, a lot of people that went towards E-Commerce are actually gonna go back to affiliate marketing.

My reasoning with that is that I do feel like E-Commerce…the margins are getting a little bit tighter, whether it’s because of more competition or rising Facebook prices but I do feel that the margins are getting a little bit tighter.

Whereas affiliate marketing it’s…you can do 5000% at least and it’s not out of the question, whereas in E-Commerce the profit margin is a little bit slimmer.

Typically like 15% to 40%.

I feel like the margins are getting a little slimmer and also a lot of people are realizing that they just like doing affiliate marketing.

They don’t like the actual customer service, managing a team, hiring people.

I do feel that a lot of people who switched over to E-Commerce are gonna go back to affiliate marketing, ironically.

Another trend I do see is that I see the rise of E-Commerce outside of Shopify.

What do I mean by that?

A lot of people – when they think about E-Commerce – they think about Shopify and drop shipping their own courses.

But I think that another option that I’m starting to see more is Straightsell products.

I think that the real benefit of that is that a lot of these advertisers really know how to cross-sell.

They really know how to upsell.

You can run something White Hat but you don’t have to take care of the customer service.

You don’t have to take care of all that stuff.

I think there’s gonna be a hybrid market of affiliate marketing and E-Commerce.

Those are two of my predictions.

There are a lot of other trends that are happening but I rather keep those to myself so I can keep making money from them.

13. Surprises in 2017

This didn’t happen to me but I remember that – earlier this year – a lot of people that were advertising on Facebook had a lot of difficulties.

Maybe they were running multiple accounts.

Facebook did a sweep, a ban, and then a lot of people had difficulty adjusting.

That was really surprising, just because some people I’ve seen who have always adapted weren’t able to adapt.

That’s why I mentioned earlier:

One of the top skill sets is to adapt.

You just can’t be doing these same techniques every single year and expect to make a lot of money.

This is a very dynamic industry.

When something changes, what are you gonna do about it?

You have to keep experimenting.

You can’t just complain like:

“Oh man, things are getting harder and prices are rising.”

That’s just part of the market.

If you have a restaurant and then a McDonald’s or a Chipotle opens next door, are you just gonna sit there and complain or are you gonna fight back?

Always focus on adapting.

I always tell people:

Stay lean.

I’m very careful with my money.

I made a lot of money in affiliate marketing but I’m not blowing it on bottles at the club or something like that.

I keep my money.

I reinvest it in my business.

I reinvest it in other stuff.

Things can be up and down but you just have to work hard and adapt.

14. Opportunities & Threats

I think that – if there’s maybe one thing that I’m worried about – is possibly…a lot of these mobile cell phones, there are all these different rules and regulations that are coming out in regards to tracking.

That’s the one thing I’m concerned about.

Not too much.

But I do feel that there’s been a lot of advertising that’s a little bit intrusive.

A lot of people are creeped out by the amount of targeting ability that Facebook has.

Or perhaps a lot of ads are just very intrusive such as popups, PPV, and all that stuff.

I feel that a lot of devices and computers are gonna start pushing back.

I’m worried that there may not be this level of detailed, granular targeting available.

Just because it can be a little bit intrusive.

That’s just what I’m worried about.

If there are rules and regulations I come out for that.

At the end of the day, Facebook and Google are some of the top companies in the world.

I know Google has all these products out there but 99% of the money comes from AdWords.

I do feel that there’s gonna be a lot of pushback and a lot of lobbying against that stuff because that’s how those companies make money.

I’m not too worried.

Marketing is marketing – we always adapt.

15. Future Plans

I have a lot of stuff in the works.

I don’t wanna announce anything just yet, just because I don’t want to announce something and then change my mind.

We haven’t really created a plan for 2018.

What I’m really focused on in 2018 is just the same thing I’ve been working in the past.

I just wanna keep writing articles, keep giving more value, keep making money in campaigns.

I just really wanna focus on building my brand and just being known for excellence.

Whoa, Charles!

That was an awe-inspiring interview!

Thank you for this tremendous privilege!

As for you, our reader, keep on coming back for more because we’re cooking a whole lotta Affiliate World Asia 2017 Interviews for you guys to check!